Smoked Quail Recipe

Smoked Quail Recipe

Have you ever wanted to learn how to make smoked quail? Well, I have been smoking quail for many years now and it is quite easy and even in the smoker, only takes about an hour of your time to complete.

If you want to brine the quail, I recommend a buttermilk brine which does them a lot of good.

Buttermilk Brine

1/2 gallon buttermilk

1/2 gallon water

1 cup kosher salt

Mix salt and water together until the water returns to clear. Add the buttermilk and mix will. Place the quail in a ziploc bag and pour the buttermilk brine over them to cover.

If you don't have a lot of quail, you can half the recipe.

Let the quail brine for about 2 hours.

Rinse the brine from them under cold water and pat them dry with a paper towel.

Place them in a foil pan with skin side up.

Sprinkle my rub on them for great results or you can use a plain salt/pepper mixture made of half kosher salt and half coarse pepper.

Place the entire pan in the smoker at 225 degrees.

Quail usually take about an hour or so but the problem is that the legs usually get done before the breast does so you can wrap the legs in bacon to slow things down a bit in that area. I have seen folks wrap the entire quail in bacon but in my opinion this is not necessary.

I often smoke them with no bacon wrap at all and I keep the temperature at about 225. They are tender, delicious and very juicy.

13 Comments

Hello Jeff – really enjoying your recipes, thank you for all the wonderful information, it’s been so much fun experimenting with all of your recipes. I do have a question for you – I have 6 frozen and skinless wild pheasants that I want to smoke, would I approach this smoke the same way the you did with your Quail? Or do you have another process that you would recommend

I got started about a year ago with a Brinkmann electric water smoker and in my humble opinion it's perfect for beginners. Available at Home Depot for about $70 and HD has a reasonably good selection of wood to get your started. And it's easy to use.

Please do a review with your comments. I think the Brinkmann is a good way to get people started…….

Love the news letter, I have a three ring binder with tips, tricks, and recipes from you and family & friends from Texas and Georgia.

I tried smoking some King Fish steaks to make some smoked fish dip and it was awesome!

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